The show Arrow, running on CW Network, is quickly becoming one of my favorite new shows of the season. While I'm more of a Bat-fan, Green Arrow is similar enough to have a place in my heart. That's one reason Arrow has my attention. Another is that the storyline is quite intriguing. We're only three episodes in, and yet we are slowly learning of a conspiracy that has ruined Starr City, that includes Oliver "Green Arrow" Queen's own mother. The addition of Deadshot also helps.Which is a nice segway to the other thing that makes Arrow such a wonderful show. The characters are rather top notch. Each and every character is not some sort of archtype, and each one is flawed in a certain way. I won't go into detail with that observation. Instead, I will implore you to watch the show yourself, especially if you are a superhero fan. Finally it can be said that there is a live-action superhero show that manages to treat it seriously.

Just yesterday I was reading an article on the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and while doing so I had the best idea I ever had. I encourage you to read the article yourself, but I will explain a part of it. Part of the article lambasts President Obama for going to a fundraiser just after one of our abassadors had been assassinated in Benghazi.Immediatly I had thought of President W. Bush. He had been lambasted at the time when it was found out that after the planes hit the World Trade Center towers that he didn't immediatly jump from from the event he was at and run back to Washington. Of course there is a major difference between the two: Bush was alread at the event when tragedy struck, while Obama left Washington in the midst of tragedy to go to an event. But it was the fact that Obama went to a fundraiser in the first place that got me thinking.Ever since the Obama administration began, certain parties have lamented the presence of the 'never-ending campaign.' The Never-Ending Campaign is described as a sitting president, or office-holder, campaigning for the next election. The thought of that made me think of the Consuls of the ancient Roman Republic. In the Roman Republic, there were two Consuls, the CEOs of the Republic. But the important thing about these Consuls was that they were not allowed to serve in consequative terms. And I thought that that would be a great idea for US Presidents; forbid them from serving consequative terms. Think about it, in this era of instantaneous mass communication, there is no worry about a national figure becoming obscur, especially if he remains relavant. So there is no need to allow for consequative terms. The benefits to this would be that the President wouldn't be worried about the next election, because he couldn't be on the ticket. Without that worry, he would only be concerned about good governance and good policy, especially if he wants his party to remain in the presidency. We would finally have a President that would have every incentive to be Presidential.The only problem is that there could be an abuse of the Vice-Presidency. The former President could become the next Vice-President and become the power behind the throne, therefore having a hidden third term. But that could be nipped by forbidding a President from becoming Vice-President

Since the race for president began, everyone has noticed that Obama has not been running on his record. That's mostly because, Obama doesn't have a good enough record to run on. He does have a record, but very few like his record. That said, Obama has done a good thing (for me at least), and that has been to make me wistful for a form of government long since thought to be defunct: the monarchy.Obama does not like the fact that America is a powerful country. That is not my opinion, Obama said that himself:

Now it sounds as if he cares about global poverty, but in reality, he wants America to be less, not more, powerful. That is why he appointed Steven Chu as Engergy Secretary. That is why he's been leading from behind on Libya and Syria. That's why terrorist had the audacity to attack and murder one of 0ur Ambassadors. But that is the danger of living in a Democracy. We might not elect as leader someone who has the country's interest at heart, but only his own. A monarchy is different. In a monarchy, the king of the country implicitly, or explicitly, the owns of all the wealth that the country produces. In that way, the king directly benefits when the kingdom grows stronger. Usually this creates an environment of perpetual war, but at least the king always tries to make the country stronger. Obama has tried to make our country weaker, proving that democracy might just be the worse form of government ever.

The following is one of the funniest skits I have ever seen come out of the seminal Sketch series, Robot Chicken, I have ever seen. I you don't laugh, then you hate Batman and/or Mark Hamill. And if you hate either, then I want nothing to do with you.

And this one is just weird. I think the animators were tripping on mushrooms, or something.

And this one is just plain awesome. Daniel Craig FTW (note, Daniel Craig does not appear in this sketch).

For a couple of years now there have been two excellent superhero cartoon shows on the air. On Cartoon Network is the excellently animated Young Justice. And on Disney XD is the well plotted Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. I watch both shows regularly, and you should too. Young Justice has a tight plot and well coreographed action scenes, while Avengers clearly keeps to the source matierial, while still making room for their own canon. But if I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be Avengers.But it didn't have to be that way. At a glance, Young Justice just has the advantage. It has crisper animation, a more compelling story, and it's DC: I'm a bigger fan of the DCU than of the Marvel U. However, the plot has recently become its sticking point. Spoilers abound: Young Justice is about the sidekicks in a battle of wills against an organization of the most dangerous supervillains in the DCU calling themselves the Light. Last season ended with a successful attack by the Light against the Justice League, where much of the Light's plotting over the season hit paydirt. The next season begins 5 years later, and the results of the Light's attack are only now being felt. That came as a neat surprise, moreso because one of the heroes of the show seems to have gone rouge. But we learn at the Mid-season finale, we found out that he was actually acting as a double agent, trying to infiltrate the Light. A couple of weeks ago, the season began again, and it is meandering. The new mystery is the Light's extra-terrestrial partner and who he might be. Evidence points to Desaad of Apokalypse, but who knows. And that is the problem. We are constantly being teased about seeing the Partner, but after months, we are not shown at all. I love a good mystery, but this one just doesn't seem to be going anywhere.Oddly, this isn't a problem for Avengers. They too have longer reaching plotlines that extend over seasons. But the payoff for those plots come much faster. At the end of Season one of Avengers, we found out that the Skrulls were infiltrating Earth and the Avengers. I, and most likely others, believed that the whole Skrull invasion storyline would take up the entire 2nd season. Instead, it only took a half season. And now, we're just waiting for the Kree-Skrull war that was promised halfway through the first season. But the wait isn't so bad as Avengers has plenty of other plotlines to carry us through. So in conclusion, while Young Justice is a better cartoon, Avengers is the winner this season to to a distinct lack of mean

Last Saturday, the New York Times posted an editorial explaining how successful President Barack Obama's foreign policy has actually been. Really? The Middle East is currently burning to the ground in anti-American violence, precipating with an assassination of a U.S. ambassador, and Obama is a foreign guru? Really?This article is just wrong, completely and unadultrously wrong. Obama's foreign policy has failed, and there is just no way to spin it the other way. I can't even say that they tried. Everything they said was just wrong, starting with the opening: FOR the first time in a long, long time, a Democrat is running for president and has the clear advantage on national security policy. That is not “how things are supposed to be,” and Republicans sound apoplectic about it.